There haven't been many posts over the last month or so, although there's been plenty of gaming and painting.
On the paint table, I've been working on the next batch of Airfix Britons... really enjoying painting these and I've been impressed by how good they are given the age of the figure design and the bendy soft plastic. I've also been painting up some more of the Lucid Eye Red Book of the Elf King figures. Again, very nice to paint. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to do with these once I have enough for a game, but I'm happy to go with the flow and enjoy the process!
Game-wise, there's been an excellent huge Ancients game at Eric the Shed's where the Persians gave the Greeks a bloody nose, and some excellent Roleplaying games at Eric's and online (more on RPGs in a separate post coming soon)
Last night saw me actually dig some figures out of the loft for a game... it's the 1st time I've ventured up there for months, partly due to the heat as it's like a sauna up there. I bashed my head off the hatch on the way up but managed to stay on the ladder somehow... the lump's just about going down now, several days on! I really do need to do some sorting out up there though as it's even more chaotic than normal.
So, it was off to the fields of NW France and the Franco-Prussian war with my friend Andrew, and a refight of Mars-La-Tour using the excellent 19th Century rules by Neil Thomas. Mars-la-Tour should be a good chance for the French to give the Prussians a rare kicking... Marshal Bazaine had 130 000 men available versus an initial Prussian force of 30 000 (eventually rising to 65000 later in the day). Of course French generalship was very poor and meant that they failed to make much impact on the Prussians who had formed a defensive position. The scenario puts a lot of restrictions on French command and control so only between 1-3 French units can be fully mobilised each turn. All the others move and fire at half effect.
[Does this sound like I'm getting my excuses in early... because that's exactly what I'm doing!!]
Both sides have reinforcements arriving half way through the game and the French actually have a great opportunity to flank the Prussian line. The temptation was to sit back and wait for these, and use the advantage of the longer rifle range that the French enjoy, but I was conscious that the victory conditions meant the French have to force the Prussians away from the central road which leads to Metz. I was lucky with my command roles which let me order the max of 3 units per turn for the 1st few rounds. Looking at the map, I did make a slight error when I set out the starting positions which should have had a couple more of the French units begin within range of the Prussians, especially in the SE corner of the map
[yep... more excuses]
I tried using my artillery to soften up the Prussians and pushing a couple of infantry units forward: one of the features of the rules is that you can generally either move or fire, not both. And moving means you are in column, which made my units a tempting target for the superior Prussian artillery which caused pretty devastating casualties.
The rules certainly give a good reflection of 19thC warfare. Regiments marching across the open are likely to devastated by artillery and breechloading rifles. In desperation I tried an assault on Vionville before spotting the rule which says Infantry will only charge other infantry when they outnumber them... frustrating but fairly accurate. It definitely emphasises the need to soften up your opponent with longer range fire first!
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| The doomed assault on Vionville |
After a few turns of this we realised that there was no way the French were going to get anywhere near the Prussian lines and abandoned the game in favour of a general catch up and chat
With hindsight I should either have made a general advance to within Chassepot range: I'd have come under heavy artillery fire but it would have been spread across the line, rather than giving Andrew the chance to concentrate on 1 or 2 units. Or waited till the reinforcements arrived. However I like to think I played the French in the spirit of Marshal Bazaine!!
I haven't played these rules for several years but I can highly recommend them. They're pretty simple and easy to pick up and I really like the explanations Neil Thomas gives about how they are structured which make a lot of sense. They're actually a really nice set of rules to read. His explanations about the development of wars in 19thC Europe and his musings on the features of the rules are very readable and add a lot of information and nuance
